EBU Robot

Anna and I have a strong record of always finishing 'in the prizes' in the 12 board EBU tournaments. The prizes are BBO Masterpoints, which I think they award to the top 40%, but there you go.

Last night we were cruising on around 60% until four bad boards at the end took us to 52.4%, and 28th out of 74, earning 0.07 BBO points.

I'm sure it's no coincidence the last two rounds were against people playing with Robots. We never seem to do well against the Bots.

Here's one where I could have done better:

Anna has the big East hand. I like her 2NT rebid compared to 3♦. I am quite happy to play 3NT but bid checkback Stayman, to see if there's a Heart Fit. When Anna shows three Spades I decide I ought to play there instead.

3NT (With East declarer) would actually have been an easy 11 tricks.

In 4♠ I got a Club lead. There's no need to risk the finesse. I won the Ace, and discarded a Club on a Diamond. I set about ruffing the Hearts, including ruffing the last one with the ♠Q. This was over-ruffed, and I now have three trump losers. If I'd have guessed to ruff with the ♠7, or threw that last Heart on the ♦, or drawn one round of rumps earlier, I'd have made 11 tricks. 4♠= was worth just 22%, 4♠+1 would have been 75%.

I think my line was reasonable, but looking at the hands afterwards we thought playing the third round of Diamonds is better. It gains if Diamond are 3-3, or the short hand is ruffing with a Spade honour, or if the short Diamond hand is before you then you can over-ruff.

Here's a tough defensive problem for Anna:

My lead of the ♥2 promises four to an honour. When Anna wins her Diamond she has to decide if it's worth continuing Hearts. I think from declarer's play on the first trick (winning the Ace in hand) I can't have ♥KJxx or even ♥Kxxx (declarer would surely have tried the ♥Q on table with Qx opposite Axx or won cheaply with the Jack with Qx opposite AJx), so East can find the Spade switch.

Doing so would have got us four tricks in defence, for 3NT= and 90%, compared to 3NT+3 and 21%.

I blame Blackwood

I am the non-playing captain of the second Scotland Junior Team. They will compete next month in the Peggy Bayer tournament against the other home nations. We have been doing some practice events, and this Tuesday two of them wanted to play in the New Melville Teams. Anna and I made up the four.

The boys played well. They didn't miss any games, and possibly bid some which they shouldn't have after a couple of lucky misunderstandings worked out well. Anna and I bid our games too, and we were looking good. It was only in the last round that things went awry (for Anna and I, the boys did fine). On the penultimate board I watched in amazement as Anna played a bizarre 3♥. She avoided drawing trumps, then took a strange finesse. As the hand unravelled it became clear she thought she was in 3NT. She would have made 3NT too, but did't make 3♥.

Then on the very last board we had a missed opportunity:

Danny Anna W N E S - - 1♠ - 4♠ - - -

Anna opened 1♠ and I had an automatic raise to 4♠, showing a weak hand with five trumps.

Nearly all of the time, Anna should pass this, as I could be very weak. But actually, almost any hand I have with five Spades is going to have play for 6♠. And if I have the ♠K, which very often do, slam is almost certain. She can count 5 top Spades, 5 Clubs, and a couple of Heart ruffs in hand.

Although in fact I have a pretty unsuitable hand (no ♠K, wasted values in Hearts) all 13 tricks were there when the trump finesse worked (although it looks like my Diamond singleton is necessary it's not, as any other Diamonds I might have could be discarded on Clubs). In fact it's very hard to construct a North layout where you don't want to be in 6♠.

I think counting tricks makes it very favourable to bid 6♠, but the void makes people wary of bidding Blackwood, and they don't want to bid a slam without Blackwood. In 30 tables it was bid just 7 times.

Despite this missed opportunity the team finished 9th out of 30.

Strong performance

Anna and I played a league match for Team Rowan last night. It felt odd not moving tables, and playing 24 boards against the same opponents. It was a good brisk game, and I think both pairs did well. I don't think Anna and I missed any good games or slams, or let anything through, and we scored a few good results too. This was an early success:

With partner a passed hand I have free licence. Over the 1♠ opener I bid an immediate 4♥. Pre-empting at game level is very effective as the opponents don't know if you are weak or expecting to make. South has a tough decision, but chose to pass.

In 4♥ I got a Spade lead, and the defence are threatening to take five tricks (two Spades, a Diamond, a Club, and South wins a trump if a third Spade is lead through). However, I was able to discard the ♦J on a Spade and hold it to 4♥-1.

As you can see, 4♠ for North-South is cold, which perhaps they would get to if South doubled 4♥. On the other table our team-mates made 4♠, after East only overcalled 2♥. In the other match North opened a weak 2♠ both times, once leading to 4♥-2 and once 5♥-2. Overall then a good board for Team Rowan. Really North-South should be getting to 4♠ with South doubling anyone who bids 5♥.

My second featured board was not such a good one:

I opened 1♥, South doubled and Anna bid 2♦, still showing 10+. When I rebid my Hearts Anna gave support, and it's hard for me to avoid bidding game, especially at aggregate scoring. I did consider 3NT, as I know it's going to be difficult getting Spade ruffs with short Spades on my right.

When dummy comes down it's not looking good. On the ♦T lead I know that the Diamond finesse is failing, so I have two unavoidable Club losers. I need one trump loser, and to ruff two Spades in dummy, which requires finding exactly ♥Kx onside. So that's what I play for. It's looking good when I am able to ruff one Spade with the ♥9, but falls apart when the Heart finesse fails.

Two off is no disaster at aggregate, and it was worth trying for that layout that would let me make it. However, there's a further twist. With just three tricks left I've got ♥A62 in hand with one other small trump outstanding. I ruff with the ♥2 and accidentally double-click, therefore starting the next trick with the ♥6! This is as obvious a mis-click as you could get, and I immediately explain what happened and ask for an undo.

My request is rejected, then one opponent says "try again" but her partner still rejects the Undo. So it's 4♥-3 and minus 300.

On the other tables most were also unable to avoid bidding 4♥ either, and it finished variously 4♥-3 (me), 4♥-1, 4♥-2 and 3♥-2.

In the end we won our match by +800, and the other match by +140 for an overall win of +940 translating to a 10-6 win.

Would +1040 have been a different score?

Finding the overtrick

Last night Anna and I had another go at the EBU pairs. I bid and defended quite recklessly, and got lucky as pretty much everything came off. The high point of good fortune was bidding a terrible 3NT that relied on getting four tricks from ♠AJ92 opposite ♠K6.

The hand below was the most interesting:

North made a light third-in-hand 1♦ opening, which Anna overcalled 1♥. She should really double first with six hearts and 16+, but the overcall worked well enough here when I supported with 2♥ and she could bid game.

South lead a Diamond to the Queen and Ace. There are now ten tricks - six Hearts, two Diamonds, a Spade and a Club. Anna drew trumps then used the Club entry to take a Spade finesse. This would gain a trick if North had both missing honours, but as it is he ducked correctly to South's ♠Q and later Anna had to give a trick to the ♠K.

4♥= was a common score and got 46%.

The wining play is to realise that you need to finesse Spades twice, so need two dummy entries. That means ruffing a Diamond in dummy, even though it's a winner. As Anna agreed afterwards, it would be easier if you'd be dealt ♦Axx.

We finished on 62.8%, good enough for 11th out of 102 pairs.

Too Obvious

Yesterday I went for a snooze after putting the children to bed. Anna woke me up, and five minutes later we were playing in our second-ever EBU tournament. On the first board I made a 2♣ bid, and alerted it as "Checkback Stayman, forcing to game". I'd got confused though, and it wasn't Checkback Stayman. Anna correctly passed, and we played 2♣+2 with a combined 27 count. Amazingly, no game made, and we scored 83% for our efforts. I apologised to the opposition.

We had got lucky there, but also had plenty of missed opportunities. This could have been glorious:

I'm 5-5 with Clubs and Spades, and decided to open 1♣. When Anna replied 2♣ I was a bit anxious about not showing my Spades but couldn't really make a forcing bid so passed. When it go back to me at 3♥ I still haven't shown my Spades so rather foolishly bid them now. This must show five, but with Anna only having a doubleton she put me back in 4♣. West doubled, and lead the ♠T.

The lead went to the ♠Q, ♠K and ♠A and now my Spades are all winners. If I can just draw trumps I could only lose one trump and two Hearts. Or I could even get rid of the Hearts on the Diamonds. I cashed the ♦A, and lead my ♠J, hoping the lead was a doubleton. It wasn't. West ruffed, took his ♣A and two Heart tricks for one off.

There is no legitimate way to make the contract, but I could have done a lot better. Leading the ♠7 rather than the ♠J would mean that West might not ruff (ruffing could cost a trump trick if his partner has ♣Jxx). Also, I could instead have tried to get to dummy with a low trump to the ♣Q, after which I can discard my Hearts. Or, maybe I shouldn't even unblock the ♦A, which is so obviously a singleton, but rather start on trumps and hope West continues to be reluctant to lead Hearts (thinking I have the ♥K).

Conceding 4♣x-1 was worth 12%. If we leave in 3♥ and beat it we still only get 37%. Making 4♣x would of course been a top.

After this we played 6♣+1 not 6NT for another bad score, then got 0% where I failed to switch against 3NT and it made with an overtrick instead of five off. But we had a few good ones too and finished on 56.5% for 34th out of 148 pairs.

EBU Debut

Last night Anna and I played in our first EBU tournament. It was only 12 boards, starting at 1930.

We got off to a good start, but two minor slip-ups and two good boards for our opponents held us back.

On the one below it only occurred to me afterwards that I could have done better:

North didn't alert any of her bids, but I asked and it turned out she'd shown 5-5 in the majors. I lead a Diamond. Declarer drew trumps and played Spades. I took my Ace and played Clubs. Anna was alert to the danger and took her ♣A before it went away. Conceding 4♥+1 was a common score, and was worth 41%.

But, as you can see, I could have given Anna a Spade ruff. From the auction I know that North has five Spades, I've got four, and South must have at least two for the 1NT opener. Could I have pictured my partner with a singleton and lead the ♠A? Maybe I should have. After the Ace and a ruff we still need to cash our Club trick, for 4♥= and 77%. Not easy, especially with my nice Diamond lead.

By contrast, here's a board I did well on:

South opened a weak two in Diamonds and I had the West hand. 2NT is my bid, but I didn't like it. I'm flat, with only 15 points, vulnerable, and with a poor Diamond stop. But I bid it and hoped for the best.

Dummy was a disappointment, with just an Ace of Spades. North lead a Diamond and South took the ♦A and played another. I won my King, and North discarded the ♠3. On asking, she revealed that she played reverse attitude discards (!). I lead the ♠T, expecting a cover from North's ♠QJxx, but when that didn't come I played Spades from the top and collected four Spade tricks along with my Diamond trick.

The good news is that South has now shown a full 9 points, so has no cards to ever get back in with. So I now exited with the ♣Q, giving North a problem. He won and gave me a Heart trick (trick number seven), then was endplayed again to give me a second Club (trick number eight).

My enjoyment was only tempered by the fact that we were running out of time, and it looked like we weren't going to get to the end before the clock reached 0. With one trick left before my claim the cards disappeared, and we were awarded an average score. But to my relief the director immediately adjusted it to 2NT=, for 89%. Going one off would still have got above 50%, as North-South were making 110 in 2♦+1.

Overall we finished on 57.8%, good enough for 25th out of 134.

Stretching

Last night Anna played our Saturday night SBU cross-IMPs game. We thought it was match-points for the first round, but don't think that affected our play much.

It was a good standard, and in 25 boards I don't think we got any gifts from our opponents at all. The closest was when they went down in 3NT, on a reasonable line that didn't work.

Anna had lots of high-level decisions, about whether to sacrifice, and judged well throughout. I had a tricky decision below:

I have a nice South hand, which was my first good one in ages. I was happy with my 1♠ overcall, but not so happy bidding 3♠ over 3♣ when vulnerable.

West lead a Heart, and I counted my tricks. Just for once, Anna had a decent dummy for me. I was still thinking about matchpoints and fancied that one off would be fine, losing two Spades, one Heart, one Diamond and one Club. But actually trumps split 2-2 so I had only four losers and made it.

This gained 3.4 IMPs. I thought it might be a better score, as East-West can make game. 4♥ needs careful play. Since you can afford one Club loser you should give up on the miracle of ♣KJ onside, and cash the ♣A first. This gains here, but was hard to find and lots of people went down in 4♥.

In the end we finished 19th out of 52, with +8 IMPs (28 in our plus column, 20 in our minus column).

The winners (Roy Bennet and Harry Smith) finished on +65 IMPs. They actually had 21 in their minus column, but 86 in the plus column. We simply don't generate enough IMPs to do really well in these tournaments, and always seem to finish around average. Anna actually said at the end "I prefer matchpoints, but I never thought I'd say that".